By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal

Nevada’s second bear-hunting season would be shorter and no hunting allowed within the Lake Tahoe Basin under new regulations proposed by Nevada wildlife officials.

The proposal will be considered early next month in Las Vegas as the Nevada Wildlife Commission reviews hunting season regulations proposed for black bears and all other big-game animals. Discussions come a month after the state ended its inaugural bear season amid widespread controversy that shows little sign of dissipating.

One significant change would prohibit bear hunting west of the Tahoe Rim Trail, effectively barring all hunting within the Tahoe Basin, said Chris Healy, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. The season’s opening would come be Sept. 15 rather than Aug. 20, a change Healy said was requested by hunters to avoid summer heat hard on both them and their dogs.

Prohibiting hunting in Tahoe came in response to both the hunt’s controversy there as well as enforcement difficulty associated with a checkerboard pattern of land where hunting was allowed in some places but prohibited in others, Healy said.

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Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is hosting two public workshops to help orient customers to the reorganization of TRPA’s Code of Ordinances, which go into effect on March 1.

These workshops are designed to help property owners considering home or building improvement projects, along with planners, consultants, contractors, and land-use attorneys.

The workshops are:

Jan. 26, 6-7:30pm, TRPA Conference Room, 128 Market St., Stateline.

Feb. 2, 6-7:30, Donald W. Reynolds Community Nonprofit Center, 948 Incline Way, Incline Village.

Topics to be covered in the workshops include comparisons of the old and newly reorganized code, tips on how to quickly find information, and updates on the e code changes in progress.

For additional information, call Kristi Boosman at (775) 589.5230 or email kboosman@trpa.org.

Environmental novelist Li Miao Lovett is the first author of the Writers in the Woods series this year at Sierra Nevada College.

Her visit includes a reading, book signing, and reception Feb. 10 at 7pm in the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village.

This evening is free and open to the community.

Lovett will also teach a fiction writing workshop from 9am-noon on Feb. 11. Workshops are open to the community and available for credit. Students are free. There is a $50 registration fee for community members. Register in advance online.

Lovett began her writing career after a 600-mile backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail where she encountered a stalker, a compulsive poet, and 10,000 mosquitoes. She has been a frequent contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED Perspectives. Her literary and environmental writing has also been published by Narrative Magazine, Earth Island Journal, China Rights Forum, and Sierra Club’s The Planet.

Supporting the mission of Words Without Borders, she has organized events showcasing the works of dissident and censored writers.

Tahoe Arts Project continues its 25th season with the comedy/juggler duo The Gizmo Guys on Jan. 27 at the MontBleu theater.

Allan Jacobs and Barrett Felker have amazed and amused audiences around the world. They work in a variety of venues, including theaters, corporate functions of all types, cruise ships – you name it, they’ve done it. They’ve made numerous television appearances, won international juggling competitions, and taught at top circus schools.

But what makes their act so appealing is their uniquely winning combination of technique and humor.

The Gizmo Guys will bring their Objects in Motion show into the South Shore schools Jan. 23-27 to teach children how juggling relates to science and math.

Their full show can only be seen on the South Shore on Jan. 27 at 7pm. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children and seniors. They may be purchased in advance at the California and Nevada visitors centers on the South Shore.

To charge tickets by phone or for more information, call Tahoe Arts Project at (530) 542.3632.

In the last three months of 2011, there were 26 vehicle burglaries in the Incline Village area.

Authorities say even in a big city, 26 burglaries in three months is unacceptable, but in an area such as Incline Village it is a matter for concern.

In Incline the thefts are mostly to vehicles that have been left unlocked.

“Basically, these burglaries could have been easily prevented if the vehicles had been locked,” Washoe County sheriff’s Deputy Armando Avina said in a statement. “Criminals are using these unlocked vehicles as their own personal slot machines.”

Avina stressed that vehicle burglaries are crimes of opportunity. Criminals look for easy targets such as unlocked cars or valuables left in plain sight.

Burglaries of unlocked cars are also harder for authorities to investigate because there is typically little or no evidence left behind to provide leads, Avina said.

Avina said it’s also important not to leave anything of value, or any trace of valuables, visible in unattended vehicles. He advised against trying to hide purses, wallets or other valuables after parking a vehicle. If potential thieves are watching the parking lot, which is always a possibility, they’ll know that something valuable is in the vehicle and exactly where it is hidden.

Common vehicle burglary prevention tips include:

Lock the door when leaving the car.

Don’t leave valuables in the car.

If you need to leave valuables items in a vehicle, place them out of sight before reaching your destination,

Don’t leave any sign that there might be valuables hidden in a vehicle by leaving items such as docking stations or connector cables visible.

Be sure to set the car alarm or anti-theft devices.

Keep windows completely closed.

The board the oversees how Measure S/R money is spent on the South Shore is meeting Jan. 20 at 9am at Lake Tahoe Airport.

Here is the agenda.

Key items on the agenda include voting on whether the bonds go from being non-taxable to taxable. South Lake Tahoe, one of three partners of the joint powers authority, is asking for this change so operators of the ice rink may turn a profit. IRS rules say entities are not allowed to be for-profit operations when tax-exempt bonds are paying for the facility. The ice rink was built with Measure S money.

Other items include appointing committees to oversee how ball park and bike improvement funds should be spent.

Blood drive officials are asking people to give pint before the first punt. That’s because the blood drive is Super Bowl Sunday.

It is at Kahle Community Center in Stateline on Feb. 5 from 11am-4pm.

More information is on the flyer.

Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board is taking comments on the waste discharge requirements, and monitoring and reporting program for the South Shore Fuel Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project until Feb. 27.

The U.S. Forest Supervisor has signed-off on the project that is expected to take eight years to complete. The last hurdle to go forward is the Lahontan permit. If that is secured in April, work would begin when weather/soil conditions are ideal.

The Lahontan board is expected to vote on the permit at the April 11 7pm meeting in South Lake Tahoe. Location of the meeting has not been set.

The U.S. Forest Service project is designed to thin 10,000 acres on the South Shore. Lahontan is involved because of work in stream environmental zones.

The documents are available on the water board’s website.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Steve Timko, Reno Gazette-Journal

California adopted new rules Thursday aimed at preventing wildfires sparked by power lines.

In light of the Caughlin Fire blaze that destroyed 30 homes and forced 10,000 people to evacuate, Assemblyman Pat Hickey said laws like those adopted by the California Public Utilities Commission might have merit in Nevada.

“It will be worthwhile for Nevada lawmakers to look at what and why the California PUC came up with regarding new precautions to protect us from wildfires,” said Hickey, whose assembly district includes many of the homes destroyed or threatened by the Nov. 18 fire.

The Reno Fire Department is continuing its investigation into what caused the Caughlin Fire, city spokeswoman Michele Anderson said Thursday. Initial indications are that winds faster than 70 mph whipped power lines in the Caughlin Ranch area and sparked a fire. The fire department has not reached a conclusion yet.

A series of fires in 2007 that destroyed more than 1,500 homes and killed 17 people prompted the California changes. The PUC believes wind-blown power lines caused many of the fires.

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By Rick Daysog, Sacramento Bee

California will become the first state in the nation to require greater energy efficiency in the battery chargers that millions of consumers use to power their cellphones, laptops, power tools and other electrical devices.

The California Energy Commission on Thursday unanimously approved new standards for battery chargers, which the agency says waste nearly two-thirds of the energy they collect.

Thursday’s decision is the latest in a series of actions by the commission imposing first-in-the-nation energy standards on appliances and consumer products. In 2009, the commission adopted new rules for flat-screen TVs.

Since 1976, the commission says, its efforts to make appliances more energy-efficient have shaved $36 billion from Californians’ energy bills.

Energy commissioners said the new rules for chargers will save consumers roughly $300 million a year, conserve enough electricity to power a city the size of Bakersfield and remove 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking about 75,000 cars off the road each year.

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